Colorado Senior Associate AD for External Operations Alexis Williams joins ADU’s Steph Garcia Cichosz at the 2024 PACnet to share the secret to success in external operations. Williams, who was the recipient of Paciolan’s Star Award in Huntington Beach, reflects on the growth of Colorado’s external units due to the department’s embrace of emerging markets and the recent hire of Football Head Coach Deion Sanders as well as how her experience in live entertainment impacts her approach to leadership. Williams also discusses the importance of personalizing one’s management approach to accommodate different personalities and learning styles, and emphasizes the need for team bonding and team building in order to develop a unit that can row in the same direction.
The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).
A sculpture that currently sits inside a now-closed Aurora recreation center may get a new lease on life if the Aurora City Council approves a move.
The Beck Recreation Center closed last summer, and part of the building is scheduled for demolition. The remaining portion will serve as a golf shop for the nearby SpringHill Golf Course. That means a huge glass and metal sculpture installed in 2014 needs to be moved.
Advertisement
Reven Marie Swanson
On Monday, Aurora’s city council will vote on a proposal to move it to Tallyn’s Reach Library. The artist, Reven Marie Swanson, has art installations across the country, and even some overseas.
“Without sounding like I’m bragging, my artwork is in 26 states, 38 municipalities in Colorado and in three countries, ” said Swanson.
She’s a sculptor who combines metalwork and glasswork to create unique pieces, like the one that currently sits inside the shuttered Beck Recreation Center.
“It’s called ‘Under the Swimming Pool,’ and it’s the idea about when you walk into the vestibule. It felt like I could create something that you could actually be under the water and looking up through the surface of the water as if you’re walking on the bottom of the pool,” said Swanson.
Advertisement
Reven Marie Swanson
In the summer of 2025, structural issues shut the doors at Beck for good, and since then, Swanson’s sculpture has been stuck there.
“I was a little nervous because city governments are very quick to do what they call ‘de-access’ artwork. And I was really hoping that this piece wouldn’t get de-accessed,” said Swanson.
Luckily, the City of Aurora has other plans. They want to move the piece from Beck to Tallyn’s Reach Library.
Advertisement
Swanson says it should be a simple move, but the sculpture, which hangs from the ceiling, will have to be attached to the library’s ceiling in a new way, using new materials. But Swanson says she likes the new location.
“It’s a really beautiful building. It’s got wonderful light, which is going to interact really nicely with the glass,” said Swanson.
Tallyn’s Reach Library
CBS
And she is glad it will live on, continuing to inspire and enchant Aurorans.
Advertisement
“When I walked into the library, the librarian, she was like, ‘I am so excited to get this art!’ And it makes an artist feel good. Like you accomplished something,” said Swanson.
The proposal, which will be heard at Monday’s city council meeting, is estimated by the city to cost between $15,000 and $25,000, primarily because of the cost of materials needed to suspend it at the new location. The initial cost to install it at Beck Recreation Center in 2014 was nearly $35,000 dollars.
Colorado Springs police are looking for the suspect in a shooting that left one person injured outside a nightclub just after midnight Sunday, law enforcement officials said. The incident took place around 12:30 a.m. in the 3700 block of Astrozon Boulevard. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a person with a gunshot wound […]
People had the chance to pick up a piece of history on Friday as they gathered to collect chairs from the west end chair lift at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, which has operated since 1972. The resort is installing a new lift ahead of its 60th anniversary next year.
